This invention relates to household chairs for use with small children. More particularly, this invention relates to a reconfigurable chair capable of accommodating an infant, a toddler and a young child.
Young humans pose different seating requirements, particularly during feeding, which requirements vary with the stage of development. An infant, for example, usually requires a seat providing a reclined attitude during feeding, usually with some type of physical restraint to prevent the infant from squirming out of the seat. A toddler is usually placed in a high chair with the torso in an upright position and a feeding tray is usually removably attached to the high chair in front of the toddler. A young child beyond the toddler stage is normally provided with a booster chair so that the youth may reach the comestibles at an ordinary kitchen or dining room table. In the past, these differing seating requirements have resulted in the use of three separate types of seating devices. For the infant, a currently popular convertible carrier is used, which is typically an integral shell with a padded lining with the shell having a seat and a back arranged at a reclining angle for the infant. For the toddler, a high chair/tray arrangement is used. For the youth, a booster seat arrangement is used, consisting of either a separate booster chair or an accessory for an ordinary chair providing the booster capability. While efforts have been made in the past to devise a single chair capable of providing all three seating arrangements, such efforts have not been entirely successful.